Ahyoung Kim
2:01:20
Thank you, Chair.
2:01:22
My name is Ion Kim, and I serve as the director of economic empowerment at the Asian American Federation.
2:01:28
We are a leadership organization that works with 60 plus non nonprofits across the city to create a collective voice for the Pan Asian community.
2:01:36
And my team has been working for the past four years, giving direct technical assistance to small businesses across Northeast Queens to make sure that they have a fair chance to survive and thrive in our, bad economy.
2:01:49
I'm here today to express our support for the Metropolitan Park project, which stands to create thousands of good paying jobs, provide critical economic stimulus, and offer new opportunities for small businesses and local residents alike.
2:02:02
This is precisely the kind of investment our community needs.
2:02:06
Now when I go around, doing outreach to small businesses along northern, north Northern Boulevard in Northeast Queens, a lot of them still tell us that after years of COVID, nineteen pandemic and Asian hate, they still have high concerns for public safety, and they don't know how, safe their business will be, not just from, Asian hate, but also from, like, federal, government coming in to get them and target our communities.
2:02:31
This is really detrimental to our community and our economy, chair, and we want to ask those who are opposed to this plan.
2:02:38
Have you actually talked to the small businesses that are still struggling?
2:02:41
Have you talked to the businesses that are saying we are not having clients coming in?
2:02:45
We don't have regular people that used to support our business, and we need to make sure that we have a a more diverse clientele as well as a fair chance to promote our business to all New Yorkers.
2:02:56
This Queen's Future is ex exactly the plan that is going to bring that kind of opportunity to Northeast Queens and our small businesses.
2:03:03
Also, for the same, when it comes to job opportunities, chair, a lot of people have made, like, blatant claims saying that, the jobs are going to be temporary.
2:03:12
I don't think they understand the the current status of, like, where job training programs right now do not actually have a pipeline to real job allocation for the lower income community members.
2:03:22
The the federation and our member organizations that do job train job training programs right now already see that there is not enough jobs in our community.
2:03:32
And no matter how much ESL classes you give to immigrant communities, that is not creating a more economic stimulus.
2:03:38
So we are happy to support this and we urge you to vote yes.
